onthebrynk

On Sunday 26^th February the Stop the War coalition issued a statement which included:

‘Yesterday, thousands of people marched through central London demanding an end to the war in Ukraine.

Demonstrators called for immediate peace talks to avert the growing threat of nuclear war. The crowds called on Sunak and co to push for diplomatic solutions to the war and stop escalating the conflict by supplying billions of pounds worth of weapons.

With so much pro-war propaganda currently going the rounds and so few voices for peace in our parliament, it’s vital that the anti-war movement stands up to be counted.’

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I have never used this blogsite to promote political action, but will make an exception for war.

I don’t support Stop the War’s false equivalence between the actions of Russia and those of the US and NATO, but it is one of few platforms with anything like a public audience for views critical of the latter’s involvement.

This demonstration is a rare opportunity to publicly dissent from what is being done in our name – and would be a good one to support I think.

As we approach the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it continues to be really hard to find out what is going on ‘on the ground’. Not long ago we were hearing that the Russian military machine had stalled and that Ukrainian forces would be building on successes to put their opponents under increasing pressure. Some journalists were even talking of a Ukrainian victory.

Now we are hearing that Russia, on the back of a vast re mobilisation, is about to push again and President Zelensky is doing the international rounds asking / begging for more military hardware and seeking to bolster a Western support that he is concerned is flagging.

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Following the recent blogsite post ‘We are not trying to help Ukraine but rather to fight Russia’, which focussed on an analysis of the military situation in Ukraine provided by Col. Jacques Baud, the following questions were posed by my friend Andrew, a supportive onthebrynker:

‘I ask myself whether the west’s seeming provocation of Russia to the point of precipitating war was deliberate, reckless, or incompetent. It’s hard to think that such carnage and devastation is in anybody’s interests but perhaps it is.

And why are “we” (the west) wanting to fight Russia as opposed to helping Ukraine? I suppose I half know the answer to that given that western governments are in hock to big money and all that goes with it. But I still find myself wondering why!’

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As a non-military theory type and someone who is naturally sceptical of media reports from one side in any war, I have struggled to understand what has actually been going on ‘on the ground’ in The Ukraine. Which is where Jacques Baud and his article ‘The Military Situation in The Ukraine’ comes in.

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Like all of us I suspect I felt sick in the stomach on Friday 25^th February as news came through of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I felt sick because of what we all know about war: it kills and injures people – combatants and civilians, men, women and children; it tends to take on a life of its own beyond any initial aims; it destroys homes and infrastructure; it often displaces large numbers of people; it impoverishes and degrades lives; and it fuels hate and thoughts of revenge which can fester for years and years.

I met a very dear friend in town that morning – I had wanted to discuss Kier Starmer’s vilification of the Stop the War Coalition and the implications of this for continuing Labour Party membership. This now seemed like a bit of an irrelevance as we sat in silence not knowing what to say about the war.

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